How many investigations have been undertaken by the Garda Fraud squad since it was formed?
How many convictions have been secured?
How many people were jailed as a result?
I have often heard of people being interviewed by the fraud squad (Lawlor/Gallagher etc.) but that seems to usually be as far as it goes.
Probe into bank chiefs will go on ‘for years’ - DANIEL McCONNELL -> independent.ie/national-news … 62714.html
Heard a piece on the business show something about Denis Casey turning whistle blower he has handed over emails meeting dates etc about a loan made to Anglo which he objected too but Mr Neary and the Central bank Allegedly put pressure on to make it happen. I didnt get it all but that was the gist. Happy days I thought to myself until the presenter basically suggested that every Anglo and other banker will now use this to say same with us but we dont have the emails etc and nothing will happen
doesn’t really surprise me that financial/fraud investigations take some time. It’s not like the books helpfully state “Look, here’s where we broke regulation XYZ” or “embezzled that set of accounts”.
How are we fixed for forensic accountants? In this case we’ll probably need to be examining books of other banks too…
Corporate fraud cases are initially handled by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, and then referred on to the Director of Public prosecutions. Five cases were passed from the ODCE to the DPP in 10 years. In 10 years of operation the number of people that had to go to jail based on their investigations is zero. Money well spent.
Yeah heard that on the Eamonn Dunphy show on Newstalk,
it means that if we default on bondholders, and give shareholders nothing for their shares,
they may be able to seek recompense from the State.
this would be on the basis that at the time they invested in Anglo, the State/Central bank, was misleading investors because of its approving of the bed and breakfasting of loans between the banks.
Interesting… 
Re Mr Caseys comments Damien Kiberd said that if Casey Neary et al all knew about it and Gillian Bowler has proclaimed she didnt she must have been wearing those famous sun glasses in the Board room 
There is no appetite in government for prosecutions.
And that’ll learn them! 
Tom Delay, formerly a very powerful Texas Republican is facing life in prison if convicted (admittedly unlikely) for 190k worth of campaign finance shenanigans. This is a guy who is a very senior member of the US ruling class…and he’s spending today in court defending himself against very serious charges. This has never happened in Ireland and likely never will.
The most powerful man in Congress in the mid to late 1980’s, Dan Rostenkowski, spent 15 months in jail for his part in a fairly minor financial scandal.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Post_Office_scandal
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Rostenkowski
That is how real democracies with the rule of law work.
Lads, would you away to fuck!
Tell the people of Iraq and Afghanistan how real democracy works!
I’ve got a running tab going here on how any fucking democracy works:
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=30978
America has crossed the rubicon into crony capitalism.
The Irish are merely applauding them as they come through the door.
Eh? What’s Iraq and Afghanistan got do with anything. The comment is little more than a self righteous moral grandstanding straw man…
In some countries when people abuse their position of power ordinary folk get outraged and the system works just well enough to throw a reasonable proportion of the miscreants behind bars. Far from perfect but politics is always messy. Whereas in Ireland the system has been created from the beginning to protect the powerful and connected and is aided and abetted by the cynical and corrosive apathy of the ordinary folk, the vast majority of which are only ever roused from their apathy whenever their own particular angle is directly threatened. Lose several years tax revenue through criminal incompetence and barely a peep, threaten to withdraw free medical cards for the comfortable middle class pensioners and there is blue murder.
Today is voting day and all over the country ordinary folk are showing their disgust with their ruling class. The mood is very much throw the bums out. Of course the new lot will prove to be just as inept as the old lot in dealing with the the intractable problems but at least the the system is making a real attempt to reform itself. Maybe next time around the real shift will happen.
And Ireland. Will the next election cause any real change? Not really. FF will survive as the dominant party and the next government will prove as powerless and paralyzed as those during the late '40’s to mid 50’s and for exactly the same reasons. The Irish people dont do responsibility.
Americans do do responsibility. The results are often a mess, mainly due to unintended consequences. As has always been the way with the world. But at least they do try to live up to their responsibilities and obligations. When the US returns to its innate isolationism you will soon discover just how nasty the real world is without a well intentioned (if often heavy handed and tin eared) policeman to enforce the pax.
Give me a shout when the first batch of Irish businessmen and their political associates are indicted and successfully prosecuted on felony fraud, embezzlement and corruption charges…
In crony capitalism the cronys never have their day in the dock.
Iraq and Afghanistan are direct examples of how a democracy can be corrupted from within. There was a plan by those in the shadow to play the grand game in these states - they use the cloak of democratic government to execute military objectives. You tell me how two illegal wars of aggression can be launched by a democracy? No moral grandstanding or strawman argument - simply a belief that a democratically elected government that neither seeks Congressional approval nor UN mandates for it’s wars of aggression makes a mockery of the rule of law.
Give me a shout when Angelo, or any of the friends of Angelo, gets to worry about the showers.
Appleby is a complete waste of space. He is just a grandstander, playing to the gallery. He has never had a successful prosecution of any note… just a lot of “shape throwing” for the media, so that the great unwashed think something is being done and the “bad guys” are being pursued. This time is no different.
I dont think pointing out that crooked politicians go to jail occasionally in the US is suggesting that somehow the US is a paragon of democratic virtue. Rather it suggests that even in a place where the ruling class can embark on genocidal military campaigns the illusion of democracy must be maintained by showing occasionally that some of their own go in front of the firing squad. Britain and China do the same thing. Not so in Eirsatz, the gangs in charge there have nothing to fear by proving instead that crime and punishment are for the little people.
Agree 100%.
I guess I want the US to do more to raise the bar.
If they’re not going to raise the bar/keep it at a respectable level then we’re all fucked.
Everyone needs heroes.